IPTV

Last Friday we had an excellent guest speaker from IPTV. During this interaction I learned a great deal about what IPTV and IPTV.org have to offer to the teacher. For starters, I think it's brilliant that they have such an organized and bountiful website. I can already see the possibilities for my future classroom. For instance, for a young class I may choose to use Healthy Minutes as an excellent tool for integrating reading with science/health issues. Another great tool for young students might be to use the interactive 'game' with PBS Kids Island. I could really see a lot of students getting into the idea of seemingly playing video games when they're actually learning great reading strategies and phonics skills. Our speaker also mentioned the Kindergarten/4th grade buddy reading program with "Martha Speaks". This program would make an excellent addition for a school that doesn't currently have a buddy program in place. I really enjoyed buddy reading when I was in school (on both ends- I felt cool being read to by an older student and also loved helping out a developing reader) and feel that this is something I might like to continue when I'm teaching. For the nostalgic, PBS has brought back "The Electric Company" as an outstanding tool for teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. So essentially during her talk I learned all about how I could utilize PBS and IPTV. I mentioned here some of the great tools for students or for teachers to use with students, but there are also great opportunities for profressional development and extended learning for teachers. The only problem is a website so bountiful with information is bound to be slightly confusing. I feel I could only begin to take advantage of all it has to offer after hours of playing around on the website. Otherwise, I feel iptv.org will be a greatly beneficial tool for me in the future.